Episcopal Press and News
Pennsylvania Episcopalians Reach out to Sudan from Diocese of Bethlehem
Episcopal News Service. August 16, 2004 [081604-3-A]
* Pennsylvania Episcopalians reach out to Sudan from Diocese of Bethlehem
'Miraculous' response to bishop's appeal to help starving people of Kajo Keji
* Sidebar 1: The tortuous history and background of Sudan, by Judith Green
* Sidebar 2: A Children's Homily, by Maria Tjeltveit
* Episcopal Relief and Development assists displaced Sudanese in crisis
* Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan National Conference to meet in Phoenix
Pennsylvania Episcopalians reach out to Sudan from Diocese of Bethlehem
by Judith Green
Note to Readers: the following article is reprinted with permission from the September 2004 edition of Diocesan Life, newspaper of the Diocese of Bethlehem, which has sent $19,675.61 to help the starving people of Kajo Keji.
The situation in Sudan is dire. In Darfur, a Muslim-against-Muslim terror campaign has all but destroyed the country's western regions. This ethnic cleansing is all over the print media and even, mirabile dictu, has caught the attention of television.
What has not caught the world's attention is that the situation in southern Sudan is just as terrible. There, centered on the city and Episcopal Diocese of Kajo Keji, a flood of refugees, estimated variously between 37,000 and 100,000, have fled religious militants in northern Uganda and begged assistance from churches in their home country.
According to information from the Rev. Charles Laku, an Episcopal priest who has been eyes and ears in Kajo Keji for the Diocese of Bethlehem's World Mission Committee, the drought-stricken area has a population of 23,000 of its own people to feed, and the refugees have been eating leaves to survive.
Until August, there was almost no concrete assistance available: no food, tents, milk for babies, clothing, blankets, mosquito netting, medicines, or agricultural tools. Kajo Keji Bishop Manasseh Dawidi said there was a strong possibility that without intervention they would all starve to death.
The Diocese of Bethlehem, which covers the northeast quadrant of Pennsylvania, has had a companion relationship with Kajo Keji since 2001. Until now, it has been expressed mostly in money for school supplies and the tuition fees mandatory in Sudan. When Connie Fegley from Christ Church, Reading, chair of the diocese's World Mission Committee, forwarded Laku's e-mail to her committee across the diocese, Bethlehem Bishop Paul V. Marshall called for more than usual generosity from his churches, as well as legislative advocacy. "The situation is beyond desperate," he said.
In a column published in various newspapers across the diocese, Marshall encouraged readers "to move into a creative future," which "often means inviting people out of their comfort zones." That is part of the reasoning behind his call for keeping the Kajo Keji situation before their eyes and committing to a month of extraordinary generosity.
The response has been, says Fegley, "a miracle."
The Diocese of Bethlehem is mid-size, both in area and number of churches, in the United States. In comparison with many, it is not especially wealthy. It includes cities such as Allentown and Bethlehem, where the bankruptcy of Bethlehem Steel has left thousands of retirees house-poor with depleted pensions and health care coverage, and it includes such rust-belt cities as Reading, Wilkes-Barre, and Scranton. Episcopalians are far outnumbered by Roman Catholic and German Lutheran churches that sprouted to serve the German, Czech, and Polish immigrants who settled in the area to work in the mines and mills.
Yet the Diocese of Bethlehem has dug deep into its pockets to raise a significant amount of money and supplies to relieve the situation in Kajo Keji. After only the first two of five Sundays of August, some $20,000 has been collected from diocesan member churches and other donors for emergency food relief in Kajo Keji.
For political reasons, the Diocese of Kajo Keji has turned to its partnership diocese in the United States and to the expatriate members of the Kuku tribe around the world for help. Professor Randall Fegley, an Africanist who teaches at Pennsylvania State's Berks campus, describes these as small but mighty: a well-educated people who work as doctors and teachers in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. The Canadian Kuku have sent money and petitioned the Canadian government for assistance in the refugee situation. An Irish group of Kuku raised 10,000 euros (about $12,000) from one church on one Sunday.
And in the United States, there is the Diocese of Bethlehem. Some of the congregations have simply appealed to their parishioners. Dean William Lane of the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem reports that in the two weeks after his pulpit appeal, the cathedral has sent on $2,271 to the diocesan office. "It brought tears to my eyes," said Connie Fegley. Similarly, the Rev. Nicholas Knisely, rector of Trinity Church, Bethlehem, reported $2,391. He described his flock emptying pockets, wallets, and purses when he called for their help.
Many parishes have rolled up their sleeves and pledged their aid. In Douglassville, the members of St. Gabriel's Church raised $500 on the first Sunday, and the vestry agreed to match it. At St. Anne's, Trexlertown, a large cross in the social hall became the frame for a photo display and information rack about the Sudanese situation.
At Episcopal Church of the Mediator, Allentown, after a most interactive children's homily (see accompanying story) by the Rev. Maria Tjeltveit, rector, the collection on Sunday, August 1, totaled $1,035.25 and a Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant token (probably from a junior member of the parish).
Churches throughout the diocese have responded to pulpit appeals, organized fund drives, and letters to the editor to solicit contributions from the community.
Randall Fegley, who lived in Sudan as a student, wrote his dissertation on its governmental structure, and revisits the country every other year or so, knows the material needs of the populace in Kajo Keji. To assist in gathering food, and after a conversation with Bishop Dawidi, he collected hooks, lines, steel cable, stakes and floats so the Sudanese could lay nightlines into the Nile for fish.
To make contributions to help the starving people of Kajo Keji, please send a check payable to the Diocese of Bethlehem, designated for Kajo Keji. Diocese of Bethlehem, 333 Wyandotte Street, Bethlehem, PA 18015.
-- Judith Green, assistant director of publications at Moravian College, is chair of the communications commission at Episcopal Church of the Mediator, Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Sidebar 1: The tortuous history and background of Sudan
by Judith Green
The long, tortuous history of post-colonial Africa is filled with wars, revolutions, guerrilla actions, atrocities, ethnic cleansings, coups, famines, and genocides. But while most African countries have had, on and off, periods of peace and renewal, Sudan has lived with all these, many of them at the same time, as an unending civil war has raged for more than 50 years.
Read more at: www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_48478_ENG_HTM.htm
Sidebar 2: A Children's Homily
by Maria Tjeltveit
I used the parable of the rich man who had many crops and built larger barns to store them (Luke 12:13-21). For my version, I had an acolyte bring out large trash bags of "stuff" I'd brought from home: stuffed animals, books, food, soap, toothpaste, plates, cups, bowls, silverware, towels, a pillow, a blanket, clothes, shoes, boots, raincoat, balls, frisbees, DVDs). These were dumped in front of me. Then the children and I sorted the stuff and put things in three boxes. These were in increasing sizes, starting with a regular-size box and ending with a wardrobe box used for moving. All said Mine! Mine! Mine! all over them. After we filled the boxes, the acolyte brought out a basket with a sign that said For God and others and pointed out that it was empty. In the parable, I reminded them, the man died and all his stuff no longer belonged to him. Jesus said this was what would happen to people who "store up treasure" for themselves but are not rich toward God."
Read more at: www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_48477_ENG_HTM.htm
Episcopal Relief and Development assists displaced Sudanese in crisis
Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) is helping internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Darfur region of the Sudan. The United Nations has called the 17-month conflict in the country the worst humanitarian crisis today. Armed militia groups, called Janjaweed, have killed almost 30,000 Sudanese. Some 1.2 million have been forced from their homes and 2.2 million people need emergency food, medicine, and other critical supplies.
Through a partnership with ERD, the Episcopal Church of Sudan led a delegation to the Darfur region to assess conditions and emergency needs of IDPs in six camps where almost 122,000 live. The assessment was ERD's initial response as part of its long-term and ongoing work to help the Sudanese people.
ERD has partnered with the Episcopal Church of Sudan's Sudanese Development and Relief Agency (SUDRA) to provide critical assistance to nearly 10,000 people in and around refugee camps in the remote region of Kass.
Episcopal Relief and Development is providing temporary shelter, cooking supplies, and mosquito nets to people in Kass. Families will receive plastic sheets for temporary shelter. ERD is supplying saucepans for households who cook. Lactating and pregnant women are receiving mosquito nets and blankets.
SUDRA's assessment team described conditions in Kass, which is located two hours by car from Nyala in southern Darfur. Nearly 40,000 IDPs have reportedly arrived at the camp from 53 surrounding villages after unrest and violence.
"The villages were burnt by Janjaweed who came with 18 vehicles and camels. When they arrived, they began to shoot people, men were beaten, and the situation became confusing. People escaped to the forest and stayed there for two months roaming around. The villages were looted and young women were raped. Six hundred people were killed of which 172 were girls. People are living in 10 local schools with inadequate sanitation. Some of the community's greatest needs are security, food, shelter, and health care..."
ERD asks Episcopalians to pray for peace in Sudan. Updates on ERD's work in Sudan can be found online at: www.er-d.org.
To make a contribution and help the people of Sudan, donate to the Sudan Relief Fund at www.er-d.org or call (800) 334-7626, ext. 5129. Gifts can be mailed to: Episcopal Relief and Development, c/o Sudan Relief Fund, PO Box 12043, Newark, NJ, 07101.
Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan National Conference set for August 26-29 in Phoenix
A national conference and reunion celebration organized by and for the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan will take place August 26-29 at the Phoenix Civic Plaza Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. The focus of the fours days will be to build a national coalition and to reunite for peace in Sudan.
Earlier this year, Lost Boys members participated in the consecration service of the Rt. Rev. Kirk Smith as Bishop Coadjutor of Arizona.
Highlights at the national conference will include: an opportunity to meet actor Chris Tucker, star of the films Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2; hearing from Sudanese leaders on peace efforts in Sudan; creating a national organization to represent the Lost Boys and Girls of America; meeting producers from Outlaw Productions and the director of the Lost Boys movie; reuniting with friends at the celebration party; and a tour of the Arizona Lost Boys Center.
Further information and registration: http://www.lostboysevent2004.org/